Late night at the grid
by muggle-iow
Summary: HarryRuth. My first Spooks fic, so be nice! And Please review! Chapter 2 up!
1. Chapter 1

AN. This is my first Spooks fic, please be nice and tell me what you think!

Disclaimer: the characters belong to Kudos and BBC…I just stole them!

**A late night at the grid**

She watched the glass doors close behind him. She was always the last there and always the second to arrive in the morning. She always seemed to have so much more work than the others, so their jobs were more dangerous, more involved with the terrorists. They risked their lives everyday; she understood them not having the paperwork to go with it. But Malcolm; he was hardly ever in the field. She shook her head, no; she shouldn't feel bitter about it. She loved her job, she wouldn't have it any other way. Well, almost. She would rather that someone helped with the piles of papers she was left to deal with at the end of the day.

Putting one file into the 'finished' pile, she picked another up from the 'to do' pile, which never seemed to get any smaller until this time at night. She looked at the clock, 10pm. She had 2 hours until the last bus; she knew she had long enough. At least at this time there were no distractions.

An hour and a half later she only had one file left to finish "Finally" she muttered. Today had seemed to drag on forever, constantly tracking Adam and Zaf as they went out foiling plans that had been set for years when they had only been working on them for hours. That was one thing she enjoyed, the urgency to get things done. Any other job she'd have been bored stiff. Hearing the doors whoosh again she looked up, no-one was ever around at this time, why would they be?

"Ruth?" His voice cut through the darkness, over the humming of the computers "What are you still doing here?" He hadn't expected to find her still working, her face lit eerily by the computer screen the files next to her piled up under the desk lamp pointed to the keyboard.

"Oh, I had some things to finish up." She replied, smiling slightly at his silhouette, she didn't need any light to know who it was, who the voice belonged to. "What about you?" she asked, she knew he had gone home straight after the mission finished.

"I left my something in my office" he replied, folding his arms watching her. "You shouldn't be here" he said softly, making her blush.

"As I said, I had these files to finish" She replied defensively.

"Ruth…" he started as she stood up and shook her head, placing the file she had just finished on the pile, and then picked them up

"They have to be done." She said, taking them to be filed.

He watched her for a while, not saying anything before he went into his office and retrieved his forgotten item. Returning to the computer area he saw her back at her desk, typing furiously "Harry, go home" she said to him, not looking up.

"Ruth" he replied "Go home" She looked up, her expression netural, he hated that. Not hated, how could he hate anything about her? He more hated what it did to him, nodding slightly he agreed "Ok" before making his way to the pods.

Ruth mentally slapped herself, she hated the way things had been so awkward between them since she had broken up…no, they were never going out, not officially anyway. Many a time she had tried to lay the blame on Malcolm, but she knew it wasn't his fault. "I was stupid" she said out loud, just as he reached the door "Really stupid. They are my friends, they know everything about me." She continued as he turned to look at her. Her eyes staring directly at him "They know everything about me, they were only pleased for me, for us" she said the last part softly

"Ruth?" he asked, making his way over to her desk "What do you mean?"

"It, it was Malcolm…after we went out for that meal; he said he was pleased for us." Harry nodded, now understanding "I was stupid" Ruth said again.

Harry smiled slightly and shook his head "No Ruth, you weren't. You were following what you thought was best at the time. I meant what I said; I can cope with people talking about me."

Ruth smiled slightly then looked at the clock again "well, I had better, umm…the bus and everything" she said, standing up, putting her coat and scarf on.

"Ruth" Harry laughed slightly "I'll give you a lift. We can hardly part on that note can we?"

She shook her head "I guess not" she smiled slightly.

"Good" he said and took her hand before leading her through the pods. Leaving the computers humming behind them.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews! I'm not sure about this chapter since I was just going to leave this as a one shot, but I have been asked to continue it, so here is the second chapter. **

**Please, tell me what you think, and if I should continue further!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own any of it.**

**Chapter 2**

"Coffee?"

"Isn't it a bit late for that?" Ruth asked, looking at her watch, 11:30pm. They had just left the grid, Harry had suggested they go for a walk and Ruth had agreed, despite it being almost midnight and freezing cold.

Harry shrugged "You were going to go get a coffee 5 minutes after I turned up." He stated simply, smiling slightly at her predictability.

"And how do you know that?" Ruth asked, glaring at him. Her routine was the same every night; catch the last bus home at midnight after getting a coffee forty minutes before that. By the time she got home at half midnight the caffeine would have worn off enough for her to go to bed and be up in time to catch the 6:30am bus into work.

"How do you think I knew when to find you on that bus?" He replied smiling slightly. "You've had the same routine for years. Sometimes I worry you have too much work to do. Perhaps we should hire an assistant Intelligence officer" his tone of voice gave the impression of him thinking out loud.

"Harry, I am perfectly capable of completing the work myself, and you know that!" she smiled slightly.

Harry nodded "True." He looked down at her, "But you do seem to create a lot of work for yourself. You know Malcolm or Jo could do some of the stuff you do…" When she rolled her eyes at him he stopped. He knew full well that it was her choice to work late; it was her choice to do all the extra research, which did come in useful more often than not.

They found a small, 24 hour café by the river. Ordering two coffees Harry continued "I'd like you to do more field work" he said simply, handing Ruth one of the coffees "Don't look at me like that! As I said before, you are a born spook, Ruth!"

"Harry, I can't! I do the computer stuff, I do the researching, and I'm not suited to dodging bullets and quick thinking. Adam, Ros, Zaf, Jo and you are. Malcolm and I aren't. Look what happened to Colin" Ruth replied. The last part she said softly, none of them talked about Colin any more. His death had been a shock to all of them, particularly Malcolm and Ruth. After all, the three of them worked closely in the Grid while the others were out in the field.

"Ruth, look at me" Harry said softly, by this time they had found a quiet corner next to the window and Ruth was staring out the window, almost ignoring Harry. Realizing she wasn't going to Harry continued "I have a job for you." He stated, this got her attention and she looked at him, urging him to continue "The Colbert case. As you know, Ros didn't manage to gather enough information. We need a tracker planted and we need to access his computer. But you already know that."

Ruth nodded "I did, but I don't see what that has to do with me. Can't Ros or Jo do that? They have more experience."

Harry shook his head "No, we need you to do this Ruth. Colbert's already had a run in with MI6 where he met Ros, so we can't use her and Jo is needed else where." Placing his hand on hers he met her gaze "I'm sorry Ruth; I know you don't want to do this, but I know you can do it, and we need you too. Do you really want the American's making deals to exchange biological chemicals for oil?"

Ruth smiled slightly "Ok. I'll do it" she said softly and linked her fingers with Harry's "What exactly do you need me to do?"

"I'll send a car in the morning to take you to the hotel. There are rooms booked for us and Adam and Zaf. All separate of course. You will have to stay at least one night. I'll brief everyone there" Harry replied, taking a sip of his coffee.

Ruth nodded "Ok" she agreed. They slipped into contented silence as they drank their coffees, neither letting go of the others hand.

"You look tired" Harry stated softly after a while.

Ruth shook her head "I'm fine Harry. Honestly." She smiled slightly "you worry too much!"

"Only because I care about you" he replied standing up. "Come on, I'll give you a lift home." He held out his hand to her as she stood up, taking it she smiled as they left the café. They walked in silence to his car, walking close together in the cold. It was unnaturally cold for this time of year. Already everyone was wearing scarves and gloves with thick coats; it was only the beginning of November.

They spent the car journey in general conversation. When they stopped outside Harry looked over to Ruth sitting in the front passenger seat and smiled at her "I'll see you in the morning."

Ruth nodded as she got out of the car, taking her keys out of her bag at the same time "Yes" she confirmed talking to Harry over the roof of the car. "Tomorrow morning, stay the night at the hotel"

Harry nodded then walked her to the front door "Thank you, Ruth." He said softly.

"What for?"

"For tonight," he started, but was interrupted

"I believe it was you who brought the coffee, and drove me home. Shouldn't I be the one saying thank you?" she asked, fiddling with her keys in her left hand. Harry smiled at her, giving her a 'you know what I mean look'. Ruth smiled back and nodded.

"Goodnight Ruth" he said softly, "I'll see you in the morning" he added, then kissed her cheek before walking down the path to his car.

"Goodnight Harry" Ruth said softly as walked down the gravel path. Smiling, Ruth unlocked her door and entered her warm house. "Hello tabby" she said to the cat that had just emerged at the top of the stairs, climbing them, she picked the cat up "Perhaps it won't just be us forever" she smiled then went to get ready for her task the next day.


End file.
